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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, April 7, 2003

HAWAI'I'S ENVIRONMENT
Roots of forest program honored

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Columnist

A century ago, Hawai'i's forests were disappearing under the multiple pressures of grazing cattle and goats, firewood gathering and other destructive uses.

"In the late 1800s and early 1900s, a lot of our mountains were completely deforested," said state forester Michael Buck.

Residents began to recognize that the loss of the forests was being accompanied by another loss — water. That became an issue for everyone.

The territory responded April 25, 1903, with the establishment of the Hawai'i forest reserve system, a program aimed at protecting what was left of the forests and restoring tree cover to much of the land that had been denuded in the previous century.

"It was the largest conservation effort ever undertaken in Hawai'i. People realized that without a functioning environment, they have no economy. The forest reserves involved equal portions of public and private land, totaling 1.8 million acres at the peak," Buck said.

Fences were built to limit damage by grazing animals. Cattle were hunted out of the uplands, a process that would continue for half a century. Trees were planted, sometimes by hand in rows and sometimes by dropping seeds by the bagful from planes.

In many areas of the Islands, the forests have returned during the past century, often in a combination of native and introduced species.

Many alien species, such as some eucalyptus varieties, were aggressive growers that allowed no understory plants to survive. They were sometimes less useful at restoring watershed than native forest, where open-canopy species such as koa allowed smaller trees, shrubs and low ferns and mosses to survive together, acting like a vast sponge that hoarded water rather than letting it flow quickly to the sea.

Some of the reforestation species were trees not believed useful for logging because foresters wanted them left as watershed, not logged.

"Native Hawaiian forests are among the best watershed forests we have found, although some non-native species can make good watershed, too," Buck said.

The state this year is celebrating the "Year of the Hawaiian Forest" to mark the centennial of the forest reserve system. The observance will include a range of community events, educational programs, watershed improvement projects and more.

To learn more about them, visit the Web site www.malamahawaii.org, or e-mail Jolie Wagner, state Division of Forestry and Wildlife educational specialist, at jolie@dofaw.net.

The basic message, Buck said, is as important today as it was a century ago: "Without forests, we have no water."

Jan TenBruggencate is The Advertiser's Kaua'i bureau chief and its science and environment writer. Reach him at (808) 245-3074 or jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.